Volume 98: January 25, 2012
California
May 14 - 18, 2012
July 16 - 20, 2012
September 10 - 14, 2012
December 3 - 7, 2012
Sydney, Australia
1-Day Training
February 29, 2012
July 31, 2012
September 4, 2012
November 6, 2012
Milan, Italy
Conference Training
San Jose February 27, 2012
Toronto April 24, 2012
Seattle June 7, 2012
New York October 5, 2012
New York March 23, 2012
Toronto June 13, 2012
San Francisco August 17, 2012
Chicago TBD, 2012
Keyword Matching
Once you determine what keywords you want to bid on, the next step is to decide what targeting match to use. In other words, how do you want the search engines to match them up to user queries? Do you want your ad served up only if the query is an exact match or is it ok to have other relevant words in the query string? If you decide to use broader matching, you might also want to apply a filter to keep out queries for certain words that do not apply to your product or service. For instance if you are a real estate broker, you might not want your ads showing for queries on “real estate exam”.
Exact Match
Although they may call it by a different name, Standard Match Type (Yahoo) or Exact Match (Google) the idea is the same. Your ad will only be served up only when a user searches for the specific word or phrase you are bidding on. Exact match is the most targeted option and recommended as the best way to start your campaign. As you discover what your click through rate (CTR) is and you begin to feel comfortable with your campaign, you may want to broaden your match type to include related searches. Yahoo’s standard matching also includes the singular and plural versions.
Phrase Match
Each search engine handles this type of matching differently. Google will display your ad when a user searches for your keyword and possibly with other terms in the query. For example if you are bidding on the phrase “peanut butter”, Google will return results if a user searches for “chunky peanut butter”.
Broad Match
Broad match is Google’s default, but don’t let that fool you. You could quickly spend a good percentage of your budget with broad match turned on if you don’t define negative keywords to use in conjunction with it. Broad match includes your keyword phrase along with plurals and other relevant variations and are sometimes less targeted than the other options.
Advanced Match Type
Yahoo’s advanced match type displays your ad across their partner network to provide you with targeted leads.